Author Archives: Jessica

Goodbye Fidget

FidgetI’m very sad to announce that Fidget has finally scampered off to a better place.

She had been ill for about 3 months after catching an ear infection that later spread to her brain. Over these months she got increasingly frail and recently seemed to stop looking after herself altogether. Rich and I were starting to think that we would have to take her to the vet for what would most likely be her final visit but before we could do that she passed away at home.

We are both very glad to have had little Fidget in our lives and will always think of her fondly. She was such a lovely and gentle hamster who was always curious and very, very daft. Thanks for the last two years Fidget – I hope that you enjoyed spending them with us as much as we enjoyed having you around.

Rich has put up some footage of Fidget from when we were living in our old flat – go and have  a look see at what a daft hamster she was.

Messy baby

Messy SamToday Sam had his first taste of ‘solid’ food. You can see him here trying out a bit of baby rice and from his expression you can tell he really doesn’t know what to make of it.

We managed to hold out on starting weaning him until now, though it has been tricky as he seemed to be getting increasingly hungry and fascinated when watching Rich and I eat our meals. What finally gave us the push to start the process was seeing Sam imitate our chewing – very, very funny 🙂

The baby rice mostly ended up all over Sam’s nice bib, but hopefully he gets the hang of swallowing soon. Then I’m going to have to get myself busy in the kitchen making up pureed baby food – any ideas of what I should try?

Aunty Cara and ‘Funkle’ Nick

Rich is feeling much better now, he ended up taking most of last week off work as he was just too ill to make it in and struggled back on Friday only to do a short day before coming back home and needing to crash. Hopefully he is over the worst of it now and will be back to his old self soon.

Because of this we had to rethink our potential evening off (Cara and Nick had very kindly offered to look after Sam for the evening so that we could go out together) and we just had Cara and Nick round to visit instead. We all still had fun and Rich is definitely feeling more himself as he has come up with ‘Funkle’ for Nick as a shortening for ‘Future Uncle’.

Thanks for the visit Cara and Nick, hopefully we’ll get to take you up on your babysitting offer some time soon 🙂

An unwell husband

Jailbird SamSadly it seems that the end of Diddy Doddy Daddy week is going to be disrupted by Rich being ill with what seems to be the same bug that I had recently. Because of this we’ve had to cancel going down to Portsmouth to visit my Grandad (Sam’s only great Grandad) but hopefully we’ll be able to arrange to visit another time soon.

Rich is feeling very unwell and has spent most of today in bed – but hopefully he doesn’t have the bug for as long as I had it. So now I had better get going as I have Sam and Rich to look after!

Yummm – tasty!

Chocolate fairy cake heavenAnother news update from Diddy Doddy Daddy week to let you know how our family trip out to my local baby and toddler group went.

Rich and I spent some time on Wednesday making up a batch of extra chocolatey fairy cakes (chocolate cake mix with chocolate chips, chocolate butter cream for the top and chocolate sprinkles – yum!) which we took round to the group for their cake sale (making sure to keep a few back for us to munch on later). Sam got settled into gazing around at all the toddler antics that were taking place around him and I made sure that we sampled some of the other cakes on offer (just to help support the group of course!).

Rich was really surprised by just how much noise was made by all the kids running around like crazy and he also got to see first hand how much Sam enjoys watching all that goes on. After a good cup of tea and Sam having his feed we headed off back home where unfortunately Rich decided that he had better get some rest as he was starting to feel unwell – uh oh…

Sam’s weigh in

Sam in hatSam is delighted to be able to inform you that he now weighs a hefty 6.25 kg (13 lb 12 oz) – he is very close to attaining his first whole stone! Sam is also growing lengthwise too and has just started wearing his 3-6 months clothes as he is finally too big for all the 0-3 months stuff.

As we are still in Diddy Doddy Daddy week Rich got the chance to join Sam and us at the health centre and help out with the weighing. Sam enjoyed himself chatting away while he was being undressed and while in the weighing scales decided to do a bit of ‘watering’!

Now I had best go help Rich make fairy cakes for the cake sale at baby group tomorrow…

Best Mother’s day ever!

Sam with dadSam and Rich both went to town in spoiling me rotten today and together made my first Mother’s day very memorable 🙂 Rich provided me with tea and a small pile of presents ‘from Sam’ when I woke up this morning. There was a lovely pooh bear baby book which Rich had already spent some time filling in with the information that he could remember (yes – we really should have started a baby book much earlier!) as well as adding in some of our favourite photos of Sam. Sam also got me a box of Lush bath ballistics and the first issue of a magazine subscription to a craft magazine that I really wanted to receive. So many lovely presents and all so thoughtful!

Rich then proceeded to make me breakfast, entertain Sam while I lazed about and take charge of the food preparation for my favourite ‘Spatchcocked chicken’ dish – yummy! We also all went for a walk round the local area and enjoyed the lovely warm weather so much that we even stopped to buy ice creams.

After a very tasty dinner (with chocolate puddings for dessert) I got to have a nice long bath with one of my new ballistics. What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday 🙂

Next week is Diddy Doddy Daddy Week – Rich has taken a week off work and will be spending it with me and Sam so hopefully we’ll have more news of what adventures we get up to soon.

Slowly getting better

Sam and future uncle NickWell my weekend of rest didn’t quite work out how I had hoped it would… I ended up spending most of Sunday in A&E but thankfully nothing much is really wrong with me so I did get to come back home in the end (I’d been having some nasty stomach cramps which for a while the doctors thought might be appendicitis – very thankfully it wasn’t!).

After my A&E day Cara the magnificent managed to delay her trip back up to Yorkshire until Wednesday so she could spend Monday and Tuesday with Sam and give me some more time to rest. Nick also managed to find some free time to visit Sam on Tuesday as he’s been doing a bit of shift work, he may look pretty alert in this photo but he did spend a lot of his visit dozing on the sofa – awww.

Thank you so much Cara for all your help – it was very, very appreciated! When you and Nick start your own family I think I’m going to owe you lots of babysitting!

Feeling under the weather

Cara and SamIt’s been a pretty dire week for me so far, I’ve spent most of it feeling tired and ill – but because of Sam I’ve not been able to curl up into a little ball under the blankets. Why did no one tell me just how hard it is to cope with a little one when you are under the weather? Thankfully though the calvary has arrived in the shape of Cara who has come round today to help me with Sam and give me a chance to get some rest.

Cara went straight into the deep end of baby care and took charge of entertaining / changing / comforting / walking Sam while I got a few chances to have some much needed rest. Cara also made me some delicious soup which I greatly enjoyed and I’m now starting to think that it may not be too hard for me to try and cook some for myself one day. After just one day I can happily say that Cara is now a fully trained Samuel carer and is very welcome to come round and take Sam for the day whenever she should want to 🙂

I’m so very glad that it is now the weekend and with Rich around I should hopefully be able to get a little bit more rest so that I’m in better shape for looking after Sam next week.

Sam’s weigh in

Bouncy SamSam is proud to announce that he has achieved the new weight of 5.94 kg (13 lb 1 oz).

Samuel is shown in the photo on the left trying to figure out this baby bouncer business – he seems to think that it is a new device for turning around in while standing with his legs straight out at an angle beneath him. He has also been enjoying watching his dad and me try to teach him it’s true purpose by bunny jumping next to him.